‘Husky fans are going to find a way’: Travel options to get to the championship game

After the Huskies punched their ticket to the National Championship Monday night, fans began making plans to get to Houston for the showdown between UW and Michigan.

“I booked a ticket to Houston about three weeks ago, granted it was a refundable ticket just in case but again kind of an unshakeable confidence with this team this year,” Jyot Sandhu, a UW alum and fan, said.

If you didn’t book early, you can still make it to the game but it will likely cost you at least $1,000 for just airfare alone if you’re flying direct. If you’re okay with long travel days and multiple layovers there are some options for about $600 roundtrip. Alaska Airlines said demand was so high they added 1,700 seats Tuesday morning and an additional 500 that afternoon.

There is also the option to make the 35-hour drive from Seattle to Houston if you’ve got the time. A standard four-door rental car through Enterprise will cost about $250 for the week. GasBuddy also estimates you’d pay about $400 for the gas roundtrip.

Once you’re in Houston, you’ll need lodging, and James Kimmel from Epic Seats told us to check for partner hotels with the NCAA.

“There’s an official partner with the NCAA, it’s on the NCAA championship website,” Kimmel said. “They actually have hotel rooms that they’ve blocked and have some reasonable options, I saw some as cheap as $100 a night.”

He said if you haven’t gotten your ticket to the game, be cautious.

“I know the demand is there and I know Husky fans are going to find a way to get there,” Kimmel said. “Bad actors give everybody a pause and it’s like anything else if you’re buying furniture on OfferUp and you know you send someone money before you get the item it’s always going to be a little bit tricky and there’s that potential for disappointment.”

Kimmel also recommends using UW’s travel partners like Alaska Airlines who added more than 2,200 new seats on non-stop flights for fans.

“Any unofficial travel partner you really don’t have a safety net other than the credit card that you use but sometimes the refund from the credit card company is not enough to cover your anxiety and lost opportunity to see your Huskies in the college football championship,” he said.

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